Best of AW

Wednesday, January 21, 2015

by Matthew Hutson, author of The Seven Laws of Magical Thinking. The article is called "All Paths Lead to Magical Thinking." (Posted: 09/19/2013 8:32 pm).
In recent years, psychologists have come to understand religion and paranormal belief as resulting, in most people, from simple errors in reasoning. You believe in God or astrology or a purpose in life because you apply ideas about people -- that they have thoughts and intentions -- to the natural world. Some display this tendency more than others, but it's there in everyone, even atheistic heathens like me. What has not been clarified is exactly how the various cognitive biases interact to produce specific ideas about the supernatural -- until now.
He presents a tour de force in the form of a bunch of studies that supposedly prove that religious belief is magical thinking. "In the November 2013 issue of Cognition, Aiyana Willard and Ara Norenzayan of the University of British Columbia report on the relative influence of three cognitive tendencies on three types of supernatural belief, as well as the role of cultural influence." This study supposedly shows that "cognitive biases explain religious belief."
several studies show that people who think more intuitively are also more susceptible to magical thinking. One intuition that's been proposed as a foundation for religious thought is Cartesian mind-body dualism, the idea that a mind can exist independently of a body. (See chapter 5 of my book The 7 Laws of Magical Thinking, "The Soul Lives On.") This proposition allows for souls, ghosts, spirits, and gods, all made of disembodied mind-stuff. Explanations for dualism include belief in free will and the mutual inhibition of brain areas responsible for pondering feelings and physics.
Of cousre that doesn't say that any of these studies show that religious belief is magical thinking. Instead they present a possibility based upon the notion that more intuitive people are susceptible to magical thinking. So that says "if you are not careful you might do some magical thinking." Nor is a link provided between being more intuitive and religious belief. Although I would not doubt that believers are more intuitive, but the lack of prevision of that link is telling.
There just brings up a bait and switch that the Aiyana and Norenzayan study is pulling off. They discuss their methodology:
We used a path model to assess the extent to which several interacting cognitive tendencies, namely mentalizing, mind body dualism, teleological thinking, and anthropomorphism, as well as cultural exposure to religion, predict belief in God, paranormal beliefs and belief in life’s purpose. Our model, based on two independent samples (N = 492 and N = 920) found that the previously known relationship between mentalizing and belief is mediated by individual differences in dualism, and to a lesser extent by teleological thinking. Anthropomorphism was unrelated to religious belief, but was related to paranormal belief. Cultural exposure to religion (mostly Christianity) was negatively related to anthropomorphism, and was unrelated to any of the other cognitive tendencies. These patterns were robust for both men and women, and across at least two ethnic identifications. The data were most consistent with a path model suggesting that mentalizing comes first, which leads to dualism and teleology, which in turn lead to religious, paranormal, and life’s-purpose beliefs. Alternative theoretical models were tested but did not find empirical support.
Notice that anthropomorphism is not linked to religoius beilef but they are going to use it anyway because it's involved in belief. In fact all of these things are descriptions of various overlapping historical artifacts form religious thought because it goes back so far in human history. Most of them have not been disproved, none of them are magical thinking. What's the link bewteen teleology and magical thinking? Teleology means an end goal, so religious thinking is teleological if and only if it assumes there's a creator who has a plan that's being fulfilled. Why is that in itself magical thinking? It's just logical if there is a creator. Has teleological thinking been proved to always be wrong? No, of course not and it's logical if there is a creator. So actually they are just begging the question. They are assuming there can't be a creator so therefore anything connected with belief must also be connected with magical thinking. This probably goes back to the biases of anti-clerical prejudice, that religion is superstition. So they start with the assumption religious beilef must be magical thinking because it's superstition, thus they just look for typical aspects of religious thought (many of which are connected to ancinet religious texts) and assume it's all magical thinking. No psychological link is provided that proves that teleological thinking is magical thinking.
When he says "several studies" he links back to his own website for the book 7 Laws of Magical Thinking (he uses the number 7 rather than writing "seven" seems infantile). So his article is just a rehash of his website. What are these studies what do they really show? Those are the ones that supposedly show that intuitive thinkers are apt to be suckers for magical thinking if they are not careful, but does it access the percentage of the time that they are not careful? Can't we still check the results by our own logic and empirical data?
One such satment in disclosing these "several studies:"
Psychologists who study the origins of religion say belief in God relies on several intuitions, including a teleological bias (the assumption that certain objects or event were designed intentionally) and Cartesian dualism (the belief that mind can exist independently of the body). So to become an atheist one must second-guess these automatic ways of thinking. And recently a number of studies have supported the idea that belief in God is influenced by cognitive style–how much of a second-guesser you are.
Why is teleology "intuitive" any more than it is logical? If God is what you believe in then is it not logical to assume God has a purpose in crating? it's not prove that necessarily intuitive. Not that they link intuitive thinking with magical thinking. His comment about Cartsteian thinking is ironic since major aspects of atheist thinking is also based upon Cartesian thinking. E.O. Wilson's world view is largley Cartesian and he produced evolutionary psychology which is important to atheist thinking.
One such study: paper published last year in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General by Amitai Shenhav studuents took cognitive reflection test and answered questions. This is so telling he says "The number of intuitive (incorrect) responses they gave on the CRT was correlated with their belief in God and immortal souls," so in other words intuitive means "wrong." How could one possibly study the validity of intuitive thinking when one defines it as "wrong form the outset? Moreover, they are judging it wrong because it's connected to God, is that not also what makes it "intuitive?" They are just running around in circles demanding that what they believe has to be true and using their baises as the basis for proof. When we look at the actual tests on the study (see link above) we find that the real way they administer it (reported badly by Hustson) was to compare math answers arrived at intuitively with the persons individual belief in God. They compared believers answers to non believers answers. We are infer that the believers missed more. Actually that would mean that intuitive thinking does not correlate to belief in God and that the better intuitive thinking is done by non believers. Why? Because they got more math problems right by intuitive means. That would destroy their link from intuitive thinking to magical thinking. Wouldn't it also matter what one used intuitive sense for? Perhaps intuitive sense is better at God finding than at mathematics. What if that's what it was made for? Massimp Pigliucci sights research and argues that intuition is domaion specific. Some things lend themselves to it and some don't. [1]
Moreover, both studies demonstrated that intuitive CRT responses predicted the degree to which individuals reported having strengthened their belief in God since childhood, but not their familial religiosity during childhood, suggesting a causal relationship between cognitive style and change in belief over time. Study 3 revealed such a causal relationship over the short term: Experimentally inducing a mindset that favors intuition over reflection increases self-reported belief in God. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)[2]
So in other words because they have some evidence that initiative thinking is part of the stronger religious belief that means that religious belief is produced by intuitive thinking which is mostly wrong and is magical thinking. There are a number of things wrong with that methodology. That's not the same as proving that religion itself is derived from intuitive thinking. That is not even investigating the logic that goes into it. Nor does it investigate the right answers in one's personal life that lead to believe, they don't even offer a theological measuring devices for such answers. Putting up a bunch of math problems is not valid. People don't arrive at belief by just saying "I sense that God is really there." There is a sense of God's presence that people have and they are totally confusing that sense with 'intuitive' thinking,' they don't have it they don't know how it feels or works so they assume it's "intuitive." Moreover, the term "intuitive" can refer to different things. There's no link that the kind of intuitive thinking (guessing) about the math is the same kind done by religious thinkers.
There's an article in N.Y. Times that illustrates scientific work depending upon and being conformed by intuitive thinking. The article is a chapter form a book by Philip Lieberman, Eve Spoke, Human Language and Human Evolution.[3] The book is based upon scholarly work.
Over the past thirty years my colleagues and I have studied monkeys, chimpanzees, infants, children, normal adults, dyslexic adults, elderly people, and patients suffering from Parkinson's disease and other types of brain damage. We have also examined the skulls of our fossil ancestors, comparing them with those of newborn infants and apes. The focus of these studies has been the puzzle surrounding human evolution. Why are we so different from other animals, although we are at the same time so similar?...In some deep, unconscious way we "know" that dogs, cats, chimpanzees, and other intelligent animals would be human if they could only talk. Intuitively we know that talking = thinking = being human. The studies discussed below show that this intuition is correct.
This may upset young earth creationists, which I don't mind doing, but it doesn't disrupt my Christian faith because I don't see evolution as a disruption. Nor does it disprove the existence of the soul because that depends upon answering the question "why is it we did evolve to talk and other animals did not? There are two points that refute Hutson's ideas: (1) not only does religious belief depend upon intuitive thinking of a kind (at certain points) but so does scinece as well. (2) this scientist thinks that the intuitive thinking is proved correct by the scinece. So intuitive thinking is not always wrong. Some studies backing this up have shown that the correct results of intuitive thinking, while not better than other forms of knowing, are not worse.[4]
U.S. Navy reserach has yielded so much scientific data backing the notion that there is an intuitive sense that aids troops in battle that they started a program to teach troops how to be more intuitive.
Research in human pattern recognition and decision-making suggest that there is a "sixth sense" through which humans can detect and act on unique patterns without consciously and intentionally analyzing them. Evidence is accumulating that this capability, known as intuition or intuitive decision making, enables the rapid detection of patterns in ambiguous, uncertain and time restricted information contexts, that it informs the decision making process and, most importantly, that it may not require domain expertise to be effective. These properties make intuition a strong candidate for further exploration as the basis for developing a new set of decision support training technologies.[5]
Ivy Estabrook, program manager at the office of Naval Resarch, says, "There is a growing body of anecdotal evidence, combined with solid research efforts, that suggests intuition is a critical aspect of how we humans interact with our environment and how, ultimately, we make many of our decisions."[6]
Published in Popular source Sarah Moore form Alberta School of Business and colleagues from Duke and Cornell have produced research that proves that the first choice one makes is often the right choice. [7] That certainly implies an intuitive choice. While Trisha Greenhalgh discusses research that shows that intution is a valuable aid in medical diagnosis and that it improves with critical thinking about the process.
Intuition is not unscientific. It is a highly creative process, fundamental to hypothesis generation in science. The experienced practitioner should generate and follow clinical hunches as well as (not instead of applying the deductive principles of evidence-based medicine. The educational research literature suggests that we can improve our intuitive powers through systematic critical reflection about intuitive judgements--for example, through creative writing and dialogue with professional colleagues. It is time to revive and celebrate clinical storytelling as a method for professional education and development.[8]
Not only is it not unscientific, not only can it assist in medical care, but it there's a large body of literature that shows it can be improved. How can it be improved (meaning the answers are right) if it's no good and it never works and it's just magical thinking?
Summary
(1) None of the studies demonstrate a real link between intuitive thinking and religious belief. They make an unsupported assertion that teleology and other quasi religious ideas are intuitive thinking. The closest thing to a link is one study that shows that believe was strengthened apart form family tie, but that does rule out logic, empirical data, discussions with friends and individual thought.
(2) The studies that claim to link religious belief with magical thinking are doing a bait and switch whereby the substitute intuitive thinking. They don't bother to consider the venue or the domain but merely assume that if intuitive thinking is wrong for math then it must be wrong for all things. They assume intuitive = magical, probably because they think belief in God is magic or supernatural is magic. Then they assert that since intuitive thinking doesn't work in one domain it work in any domain. Since that tag that as religious thinking then religious thinking is wrong. They actually prove nothing at accept that they are biased against religion.
(3) A vast body of scientific research disproves the idea that intuition is always wrong and doesn't work. It's not only backed by science it's part of science. I give examples of scientific work that is based upon intuitive thinking. It's not more special and unique to religious thought than is logic. Nor is it always wrong. The scientific reserach shows it has it's place where it's right, that including not only some scientific work but also medicine.
sources
[1]Massimo Pigliucci, Answers for Aristotle: How Science and Philosophy Can Lead Us to A More Meaningful Life , New York: Basic books, 2012.
Massimo Pigliucci (Italian pronunciation: [ˈmassimo piʎˈʎuttʃi]; born January 16, 1964) is the chair of the Department of Philosophy at CUNY-Lehman College.[1] He is also the editor in chief for the journal Philosophy & Theory in Biology.[2] He is an outspoken critic of creationism and advocate of science education.
[2] Shenhav, Amitai; Rand, David G.; Greene, Joshua D. "Divine intuition: Cognitive style influences belief in God." abstract on line: Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, Vol 141(3), (Aug 2012), 423-428 abstract on Apa Psychnet http://psycnet.apa.org/journals/xge/141/3/423/ accessed 10/2/13.
[3] Philip Lieberman, "The Mice Talked at Midnight," except from Eve Spoke: Human Language and Human Evolution, New York: W.W. Norton, published in New York Times, on line http://www.nytimes.com/books/first/l/lieberman-eve.html accessed 10/2/13
[4]AJ Giannini, ME Barringer, MC Giannini, RH Loiselle. Lack of relationship between handedness and intuitive and intellectual (rationalistic) modes of information processing. Journal of General Psychology. 111:31-37 1984.
[5] Office of naval research Basic Research Challenge: Enhancing intuitive deicsion making.
Solicitation Number: 12-SN-0007
Agency: Department of the Navy
Office: Office of Naval Research
Location: ONR
https://www.fbo.gov/index?s=opportunity&mode=form&tab=core&id=be0a1ab47e05fe0f9c2bd0ffd5e40b1a&_cview=1
accessed 10/2/13.
[6] Ivy Estabrook, uoted in Channing Joseph, "U.S. Program to Study How Troops Use Intuition," New York Times, Wednesday (Oct 2, 2013) story filed March 27, 2012, 5:09 pm on line
http://atwar.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/03/27/navy-program-to-study-how-troops-use-intuition/?_r=0
accessed 10/2/13.
[7]Leon Watson ."why we are right to trust out gut intincts:Scientists discover First Decision is the Right One." Mail online updated 30 (August 2011)
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2031848/Why-right-trust-gut-instincts-Scientists-discover-decision-IS-right-one.html accessed 10/2/13
[8]Trisha Greenhalgh, "Intution and Evidence--Uneasy Bedfellows?" BJGP:British Journal of General Practice. 52, (478) May (2002) 395-400. On line article http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1314297/ accessed 10/2/13
Posted by Joe Hinman at 6:40 AM
Labels: Aiyana and Norenzayan study, Apologetics, belief and Magical thinking, God talk, Matthew Hutson, Navy Research on intuition, Trisha Greenhalgh No comments:
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Friday, May 30, 2014

Atheists are in such a good position if they don't care about truth. They can always just deny any evidence and demand more then make a big thing out of the fact that no evidence convinces them. What they never admit but is obvious is that no evidence ever could convinced them because their position as atheists is to refuse all evidence. They use a kind of circular reasoning that says "I refuse to believe, therefore it can't be true." Then assume that since they have not been convinced the arguments don't pan out.

On CARM, Skylurker makes the point that religion is a cultural artifact. I said yes it is but so what? That doesn't mean it can't also be true. We have to use cultural constructs to communicate the experiences of God through. That means they are going to colored by the culture. That doesn't' render them false. Of course the unspoken assumption is they want it to be true. so they have to admit it could be. Of course will say "I never said it couldn't be." But they also don't accept it might be.

Originally Posted by MarkUK

There's no valid reason to deny that a guy did
miracles and came back to life based on two-thousand-year-old hearsay
written forty years after the "fact"?

Meta

not if you know the historical facts.
the idea that miracles are not possible is not a valid position for you
anymore. Atheists have given up that ground a long time ago. you gave up
prescriptive laws of nature so you dont' get to there's a close
naturalistic system. you say laws of physical are description of the
universe works, then miracles are part of that.

That sets off an argument about the possibility of miracles. My argument was about the philosophical justification for closing naturalistic process to naturalistic events only. I said they forfeit that in a couple of ways. I said, "of course there is 7000 remarkable cases is a good enough reasons. 400 resurrections since the middle ages is a good reason." We had a thing about burden of proof.

Originally Posted by Metacrock

you don't have an argument. you little quips are BS.

MarkUK

It's not my job to disprove miracles.

I'm not trying to get you to stop believing.
To all who read this:

I've decided that you owe me a million dollars. However, I wrote myself a cheque to cover each and every one of you.

Originally Posted by Metacrock

If you can't disprove my claim to a prima facie warrant then I win. simple.

In other words, if you call yourself the winner, you win.

MarkUK

Miracles do not get prima facie; if they did, you'd believe every single miracle claim ever made, and you don't.

I did point out that doesn't know what Prima facie is. Anything is prima facie if you meet the PF burden, which include evidence. But I did that or have done so in the past, we were sort of comparing general overall proofs of each side.

Meta

the only way to prove it prove it does not is to prove more is needed for the claim.

I'm speaking about meeting the Prmia facie burden.

MarkUK

If you don't think more is needed to support "a Nazarene carpenter
was Yahweh incarnate and came back from the dead" than "a bloke wrote
two thousand years ago that some anonymous people saw it", I don't know
what to say to you.

Note: argument from incredulity. why should it be any more improbable that a carpenter would come back to life than a Rabbi? It's important to mention that he's talking about Jesus becuase then it has the atheist stamp of incredulity on it.

Meta

you don't have to disprove the existence of God you have to disprove my argument.

Mark

Since you claimed prima facie in the opening, you have effectively declared yourself the winner of the game without bothering to play it.

That's not true, he must show that I haven't met the burden. I can show I have.

Meta

you do not know the word pima facie means. you don't know what it is or
how to achieve it. you have no basis for the silly claim that miracles
can't be pria facie.

MarkUK

Besides I didn't make an argument based upon miracles. you can't engage
with the arguments long enough to remember what I argued.

I didn't either remember? My argument was based upon the framework which they have abandoned in favor of QM theory and descriptive laws of physic those open the door to wild and crazy things like miracles. The reference to docs for 7000 miracles (healings) and 400 resurrections (middle ages to now) were just additional evidence to boost the gain.

btw prima facies means "on face value." It's different for philosophers than for debaters. I tend to use the debate concept. Even though it's made for policy debate, that is the idea that the opening speech must present the basics that are needed to prove the case (the case being belief in God is warrated).
I did't do that in that thread but since the debate referst to the general state of evidence prestned by both sides over time I refer to my God argument pages, and perferomances in 1x1 debates.

MarkUK

If you don't think more is needed to support "a Nazarene carpenter
was Yahweh incarnate and came back from the dead" than "a bloke wrote
two thousand years ago that some anonymous people saw it", I don't know
what to say to you.

Meta

I've supplied what is needed to support it. you have not answered my arguments.

Now here is where he really shows his refusal to accept any kind of evidence.

MarkUK

Why can't the resurrection be a fiction that has been transmitted faithfully since its beginning?

Do you really think "transmitted faithfully" contributes to plausibility? There may be 100% accurate copies of the Harry Potter novels two thousand years from now...

I am the one who made the label. I said transmitted faithfully form the beginning. He's acting like i copied it form something. "Do you really think this means..." Yes I do becuase I said it.

Meta

of course it does. this is proof for me that you do not accept any
evidence of any kind. If you refuse to accept any evidence then you are
not arguing wit. you are seeking answers. If every peice of evidence you
get you reject as evidence by some trick of words, you are not seeking
answers you don't care about truth.

what was passed on faithfully was the eye witness that they saw him
alive again. that you refuse to believe it no matter what is not proof
that it's not true.

MarkUK

You seem to think that "not transmitted faithfully => incorrect"
means "transmitted faithfully => correct". This is the "affirming the
consequent" fallacy.

Faithful transmission is necessary for plausibility, not sufficient.

Meta

you seem to think that as long as you refuse to receive the evidence as
true then it can't be true. I have beaten you because you don't have an
arguemnt. just saying "I dont' bleieve it, it could still be false" is
not an argument. that's refusing to take part in the next part of the
debate.

there is no point in debating someone who doesn't care bout facts.

MarkUK

Now you've gone past faithful transmission to the original record - why should we believe the original record is correct?
why should be believe anything we don't want to believe. that's
why there are still flat earth people. they don't want to believe the
fact so they don't.

because it's being passed on faithfully stupid. don't you see whatever I can give back to the original claims they must be wrong, if there's no utterly compelling that that wont let you doubt at all then they must be doubted. that's what these guys think is "reasoning." But it means no evidence could ever suffice.

Meta

it doesn't matter what reason I give because like the flat earth guys you don't care what the facts are.

you think its a done deal because we went up in space and orbited the
earth? no they have answers to that, because they refuse to believe.

With that kind of thinking all facts can always be doubted so there's no basis in proof. thing can ever prove anything to someone who doesn't want to believe i badly enough. tha'ts why we still have flat earth guys.

Originally Posted by MarkUK

If a guy tells me he saw a pig fly, I am under
no obligation to disabuse him of that notion; I can say "I don't believe
it happened", and walk away.

that's just the point! anything you don't like you don't want to
believe you put in the category of pig flying. I have evidence. you do
not. you have no way to refute my evidence except to say "I refuse to
believe it." that's you have. you are acting that is some magic
disproof. It's not. it's just a refusal to believe the facts.

Originally Posted by MarkUK

If a guy tells me he saw a pig fly, I am under
no obligation to disabuse him of that notion; I can say "I don't believe
it happened", and walk away.

Meta

that's just the point! anything you don't like you don't want to
believe you put in the category of pig flying. I have evidence. you do
not. you have no way to refute my evidence except to say "I refuse to
believe it." that's you have. you are acting that is some magic
disproof. It's not. it's just a refusal to believe the facts.

MarkUK

As to the rest of it, you seem to have staked out your position that
I reject Christianity because I "don't want to believe it", a trite and
tedious response that comes right out of the Bible.

Originally Posted by Occam
I would probably be easier to persuade that God
exists than many of the atheists on this forum. I think that the mind
is immaterial, that we have libertarian free will, that morality is
objective, and that philosophical arguments are a valid source of
knowledge. Clearly, I am not the sort of atheist who reflexively rejects
claims just because religious people accept them.

Nevertheless, I require some sort of reason to believe that God exists
before I become a theist, and in the absence of such a reason I am
obligated to believe that God does not exist. I see theism - especially
the versions that include an afterlife - as similar to the emails you
get from someone who claims to be a Nigerian prince who needs your help.
He might be telling the truth, but for the moment you are obligated to
believe that his story is false.

I put up a thread listing all my God arguments. he says:

Occum

Metacrock, I would rather not rehash my reasons for rejecting your
argument from religious experience again. Let our debate in the Debates
section stand as a sufficient presentation of our respective positions.

read the 1x1 debate I had with him and see why. reading it again I can see hey did't want to revisit it.

Originally Posted by Metacrock

sure, you have all these big reasons you start a
thread on the subject but would rather not share those reasons? that's
fine but then go around acting like there are no reasons. You can't
handle the reasons.

now Occie how would it be if I said to the op in this thread "I have my
reasons I don't want to talk about them here." what do you think guys
like Diest and Skylurker would say to that? Not to mention MarkUK.

Occum

This is a dishonest interpretation of what I said. I said that we shouldn't discuss it against because we've already discussed it on the Debates forum, not just because I don't feel like discussing it.
Meta

sure what I said that and begged off debate on arguments with any number of atheist on this board would I eve hear the end of it?

On the other hand I like Occum and I don't him to think I'm putting him down. I do think if you put up a thread and call for discussion on some topic you should be willing to discuss it.

Overall what we see here is that facts and evidence don't mean much to these guys. As long as they can doubt they will doubt what they don't want to believe. they will continue to rationize it by pretending that the evidence is just no good becuase they will always be in a position to turn it down.

Wednesday, May 28, 2014

We
can always expect atheists to be on prowl to mock and ridicule prayer.
They really have no choice to but reject it and clutch at straws to keep
from believing the thousands of stories that come out every years of
answered prayers. They have to reject it. It's only their ideology that
prevents their addition that they have no intention of examining the
facts. A particular study has been bandied about as "proof that prayer
doesn't work." This study is ironic because to accept it's validity they
actually must accept the validity of previous studies that show prayer
does work. Since atheists are usually pretty dishonest they can't
distinguish between different kinds of evidence, so they act as though
this one studies disproves even empirical results.Friendly Atheist

I was reading an article in Christianity Today
and one of the paragraphs made me do a double-take. I couldn’t
believe anyone was actually writing it… it was incredible how much
fact-twisting was going on.
First, a bit of background.
It’s
no surprise that prayer can have a positive effect on those who
believe in it. If you pray, it can relax you and make you feel better.
If you know others are praying for you — that others care about you —
you feel better and your body might actually respond to that
positivity. None of this has anything to do with a god answering (or
even listening to) the prayers. It functions more like meditation.
Prayer can have a calming, healing effect for those who buy into it.
But
what happens when others pray for you and you are unaware of it? To
no atheist’s surprise, this has never been shown to work.
This idea has been tested repeatedly — usually, the studies have flaws. And even when the results show that the intercessory prayer has no effect on anyone, those who believe in it will look at the hits and ignore (or rationalize) the misses.

Funny
he should mention flaws, because that's going to be a key issue with
me. The so called "faults" he's talking about are mainly about the
inability to control for outside prayer. The irony is back ten years ago
when there were about 14 studies that proved prayer worked,*
the major athist argument was you can't control for outside prayer.
These were all done the same way, double blind and so on. The major
atheist argument was that you can't control for outside prayer. The
study athesits now run around touting as a disproof of prayer is one
that is invalidated by the same argument it depends upon controlling for
outside prayer. Rather than understand that if they accept their
anti-prayer study they have to drop the major argument against Byrd and
Harris and the pro-prayer studies, they try to invalidate the pro prayer
studies on irrelevant grounds that basically amount to guilt by
association.

Here's the "big study" that disproves all prayer:
also from the article above:

Three years ago, a multi-million-dollar, controlled, double-blind study was conducted to test intercessory prayer.
The Study of the Therapeutic Effects of Intercessory Prayer (STEP) found two major results:
1) “Intercessory prayer had no effect on recovery from surgery without complications.”
2) “Patients who knew they were receiving intercessory prayer fared worse.”
Fared worse?! Even I was surprised by that. So were many Christians — this didn’t sit well with them.

This new article from Christianity Today, though, offers a rationalization I’ve never heard before. You can tell they’re really straining to find a silver lining…[this is quoting Christianity today]

Ironically,
STEP actually supports the Christian worldview. Our prayers are
nothing at all like magical incantations. Our God bears no resemblance
to a vending machine. The real scandal of the study is not that
the prayed-for group did worse, but that the not-prayed-for group
received just as much, if not more, of God’s blessings. In
other words, God seems to have granted favor without regard to either
the quantity or even the quality of the prayers. By instinct, we might
selfishly prefer that God give preferential treatment to those who are
especially, deliberately, and correctly prayed for, but he seems to act
otherwise.[end quote]

True to his character, God appears inclined to heal and bless as many as possible.

This
prefectly rational explanation the atheist calls a "rationalization."
Of cousre he does, his ideology demands that he not think reasonably
about it but that he use it to attack. That's what atheism is about.
Nothing could be more reasonable. What the quote actually says is that
we can't study prayer the way we would a drug in a field trial. The
reason the mystical experience studies I use don't make this mistake is
becuase they have the sense to study the effects, they don't try to get
inside the experience itself. These studies must actually assume that we
can control God's will and control for what God does as well as for
outside prayer.

What do I mean by outside prayer?
The study has two groups, experimental group and control group. You
blind the study so that neither the participants nor the researchers
even know who is in which group. That way they wont treat them
differently based upon expectations. So in this case it means the
control group is not prayed for the experimental group is prayed for.
Then you look to see if there is a difference. Back ten years ago when I
used to argue these studies all the time I was actually rationalizing
the answer on the control because I felt it was so important to have
studies since atheists are always flapping their gums about no empirical
proof. I was rationalizing. It was only latter that I was able to force
myself to take a good hard look at the rationalization and then I
stopped using the arguments. But the current crop of atheists are not
willing to face the honest truth. How can you double blind and say no
one in group A will be prayed for? How can you know people not connected
with the study aren't praying for them? Their friends know they are
sick. How can we be sure no one of them has one friend, or how can we
know one guy on the freeway doesn't pray for everyone in the hospital
every time he passe it on his way home form work? Christians do things
like that. So there's no way to ever control for outside prayer.
Friendly
Atheist man wants to Claire its' Christianity today that is
rationalizing but look at his own rationalization. He's twisting the
facts, as surely as he says Christians do. He has to ignore the problems
of controlling for God's will and for outside prayer. He's twisting
because the says the pro prayer studies have flaws but he's not begin
honest about what they are. He is in a catch 22. He must either give up
his study and admit you can't control (his study depends as much on
controlling outside prayer and Byrd or Harris did). If he denies the
problem and says they can control for outside prayer then he must accept
that Byrd, Harris, and at least eleven other studies show that prayer
works.*Friendly Atheist above:

So the fact that the prayers had no effect on the sick? Don’t think about that, say Gregory Fung and Christopher Fung,
the authors of the article. Instead, they want you to consider that
prayer works because the un-prayed-for people didn’t die a horrible
death.
That’s one way of ignoring the evidence when it’s staring you in the face.

What's
obvious here is that the concept of double blind prayer study is a
problem. Not prayer that is disprove, clearly , it is the ability to
conduct a double blind and control for the will of God and outside
prayer. One of the major problem with atheists taking this is a
rationalization is that they don't know what prayer is about. They think
prayer is just for getting stuff if it doesn't get you somethign one
time then it doesn't work. This is because they refuse to study about
the meaning of Christian theology or to understand what Christianity is
about. Since they don't want to know they can't figure out what they are
doing wrong with the criticize the wrong end of prayer. Far from
disproving prayer this study disproves the ability to study prayer as
thought it's a drug that has to work every time.

Friendly atheist:

There’s gotta be a perfect analogy for this somewhere. What comes to mind?

to
be honest what comes to my mind first is that you are not idiot. I
suppose that would be one of those uncalled for comments that is sure to
send Hermit comment the comment box. But he did ask.

The
better method of "proof" for prayer is empirical evidence. Prayer is
something that can be studied empirically in terms of result so we don't
need double blinds. There are no cotrols on them anyway so they can't
be good double blinds. Empirical is better because it's there, if you
have the evidence its' obvious. There's another atheist argument, one
that says we just look at the good stuff and ignore the misses, that's
"hit rate."

I
think it gives them the notion that they "could" have some control
over things that are beyond their control. By way of just one example, I
think they know that they personally can't control whether or not a
loved one dies, and it is comforting to think that a being can grant
that loved one a reprieve. If that loved one is deathly ill, and the
believer prayed very hard that he or she would live, and he or she
recovered, the believer chalks it up to a prayer being answered, and
spreads the news so that others can feel empowered by this being that he
and his friends believe in. This gives solace to society as a whole,
and is useful to the human psyche. Humans don't want to think that life
is random and there's nothing they can do to change what will be. Since
they are not God, they want to think they can have a direct pipeline
to Him and have him grant favors. That is the next best thing to being
God, and gives that person perceived power that they wouldn't otherwise
have without the prayer belief.

It matters not that billions
and billions of prayers go unanswered or ignored. If there was even
just ONE person out of a billion that got well after prayer, that would
be all a believer would need. As for the outher 999,999,999,999,
either they didn't pray enough, pray right, or it was God's will.

My
opinion is that prayer gives humans the illusion of power that they do
not possess by using an imaginary God to give it to them

The
problem here is it doesn't take into account empirical miracles and it
doesn't consider the complexity of veriables. In other words you don't
need the hit rate because you are not dealing with something that is
supposed to happen every single time. You are dealing with a will that
can decide case by case if it wants to work or not. If scietnfiic
studies on partcial excellorators had a theory about sub atomic pascals
having minds of their own there would be no way to study them and no one
would have evdience for the existence of any of them. Its' only when we
can assume a stable situation that we can study it. That's why we have
to go case by case. If a cause violates what we know nature on it's own
produces then, and only then, do we have reason to believe there's
really evidence of answered prayer. God goes case by case deicding if he
wants to act. So we must go case by case deciding the chances of this
or that happening according to probability. The veriables are far too
complex to ever expect to be able to analyze the outcome short of
something that really challenges our understanding of how nature
behaves.

A leg is broken. We pray, we x-ray, the leg is not
broken anymore. Within a half an hour the leg went from broken to not
broken, this is something nature just doesn't ever do in our experience.
That would be empirical evidence of a miracle. It would require a
double blind. It wouldn't even try to control for anything because it
doesn't have to. The only thing it would control for is making sure the
X-Ray is not a fraud. I don't now of a case this dramatic but I do know
of several that are close enough that they count as evidence of prayer
working. The scientific study of miracles at Lourdes, France, the shrine
to Mary of the Catholic chruch is very good. The ruels are strict and
they are administered by major medical researchers of Europe.

The
paradox of human miracle assessment is that the only way to discern
whether a phenomenon is supernatural is by having trained rationalists
testify that it outstrips their training. Since most wonders admitted
by the modern church are medical cures, it consults with doctors. Di
Ruberto has access to a pool of 60 - "We've got all the medical
branches covered," says his colleague, Dr. Ennio Ensoli - and assigns
each purported miracle to two specialists on the vanquished ailment.They
apply criteria established in the 1700s by Pope Benedict XIV: among
them, that the disease was serious; that there was objective proof of
its existence; that other treatments failed; and that the cure was
rapid and lasting. Any one can be a stumbling block. Pain, explains
Ensoli, means little: "Someone might say he feels bad, but how do you
measure that?" Leukemia remissions are not considered until they have lasted a decade.
A cure attributable to human effort, however prayed for, is
insufficient. "Sometimes we have cases that you could call exceptional,
but that's not enough." says Ensoli. "Exceptional doesn't mean
inexplicable.""Inexplicable," or inspiegabile, is the happy
label that Di Ruberto, the doctors and several other clerics in the
Vatican's "medical conference" give to a case if it survives their
scrutiny. It then passes to a panel of theologians, who must determine
whether the inexplicable resulted from prayer. If so, the miracle is
usually approved by a caucus of Cardinals and the Pope.Some
find the process all too rigorous. Says Father Paolino Rossi, whose
job, in effect, is lobbying for would-be saints from his own Capuchin
order: "It's pretty disappointing when you work for years and years and
then see the miracle get rejected." But others suggest it could be
stricter still.There is another major miracle-validating body in
the Catholic world: the International Medical Committee for the shrine
at Lourdes. Since miracles at Lourdes are all ascribed to the
intercession of the Virgin Mary, it is not caught up in the
saint-making process, which some believe the Pope has running overtime.
Roger Pilon, the head of Lourdes' committee, notes that he and his
colleagues have not approved a miracle since 1989, while the Vatican
recommended 12 in 1994 alone. "Are we too severe?" he wonders out loud.
"Are they really using the same criteria?"

Reported by Greg Burke/LourdesCopyright 1995 Time Inc. All rights reserved.The Lourdes miracles are
a good argument. They are much stronger than those double blind
studies. There are a lot of good arguments and good info available on my miracles page on Lourdes. (Don't pronounce the s). There are also protestant miracles. There are three main prolems wtih this info:

(1) it's old
(2) It's assocaited with a faith healing ministry, the faith healer (Kathryn Kulhman ministry)
(3)
book's out of print although recently has been re-pulished in a new
form that I have not seen.** Kullman ministry asked Dr.Richard H.
Casdraoph to verify several of the healing and he uses his his entire
staff of medical technicians and consulting doctors to help. This is
not as well founded as the Lourdes miracle committee, but it's not bad.

The
Casdroph book goes into great deatail on every case. Since these were
not the actual patients of Casdroph himself, there are 3 tiers of
medical data and opinion; Casdroph himself and his evaluation of the
data, several doctors with whom he consulted on every case, and they
very from case to case, and the original doctors of the patents
themselves. The patients gave their permission and were happy to provide
the medical data on their healing since they were all people who had
written to the Kulhman ministry with words of their healing. Not all of
them were healed immediately in the meeting. Some were healed latter
when they got hom.Naturally no one had a x-ray machine standing by at
the faith meeting to crank out results like a x-rox copy, so all of them
took some period of time to see the results. Not all of them were
toally healed immediately. But all the cases were either terminal or
incurable and all of them, within a year, returned to full health and
pain free existences.

Dr. Richard Steiner, of the American Board
of Pathology, head of department of Pathology Long Beach Community
Hospital reviewed several of the slides. William Olson, American Board
of Internal Medicine and head of Isotope Department at Long Beach
Community Hospital, and several radiologists form that Hospital also
consulted on the rest of the cases.

All
of these people were totally healed of incurable or terminal states.
The one commonality they all have is that they were at some point
prayed for by the same person, Kulhman. Let's look at a few examples:

1)Lisa Larios: Cell Sarcoma of the right Pelvic bone.

Larios
didn't know she had cancer. She had developed a great deal of pain in
her pevis and was confined to a wheel chair, but the doctors had not
found the evidence of the tumor at the time her mother took her to hear
Kulhman. Yet, when Miss Kulhman said "someone over here is being
healed of cancer, please stand up" she stood up without knowing why.
She had already started feeling a strange heat in that area and had
ceased to feel pain. She went up onto the stage and walked around
without pain. She was than "slain in the spirit" which is that odd thing
when the healer pales his/her hand on the forehead and the person
falls over in a faint. It took some time to receive the next set of
x-rays becasue she only learned after the meeting some days latter that
she had cancer. Than the next set of x-rays showed vast and dramatic
improvement. It would still be some time,almost a year, before her
pelvis was completely resorted. But she did return to full health. The
Catholics wouldn't except this miracle because it could be confused
with a normal remission. The power of suggestion can be ruled out
because the heat started before she was called to the stage, and because
she didn't even know she had cancer, but responded to a call for
healing of cancer. The first dramatic improvement which was immediate
within a few days, and walking on the stage is not characteristic of
remission. Casdroph has the medical evidence from several hospitals to
which she had been taken.

3)Mrs. Marie Rosenberger: Malignant Brain Tumor.

"Three
things make this case an exceptionally excellent example of divine
healing. 1) medical evidence of the case includes biopsy proof of the
malignant nature of the tumor. The slides were obtained from Hollywood
community Hospital and reviewed by the head pathologist at Long Beach
community Hospital who confirmed the diagnosis of malignant
astronomical or glioma class II. 2) When the healing occurred Marie
Rosenberger was down to 101 pounds and was expected to die."

The
healing began to manifest immediately and by the next morning was
evident. She received no further drugs or medication from that point on.
3) The third thing that makes the case good is the long term nature of
the healing. Her diagnosis was in 1970 and by the time Casdroph wrote
the book in 76 she was still healthy and happy with no sign of the
disease since the healing (which was in 1971 one year after the
diagnosis).

8)Anne Soults: Probable brain tumor vs. Infarction of the brain.

"This
lady's brain abnormality was well documented by the standard
diagnostic techniques and she was seen by man specialists.
Electroencephalographic study was performed in each of her
hospitalizations.The repeat study dated January 6th reported 'abnormal
EEG suggesting left temporary pathology, there is no significant change
since 12/27/74.'...the clinical impression was that of brain tumor and
her symptoms suddenly and completely disappeared following a visit to
the Shrine service."

When she went to the service an
unknown christian placed his hands on her shoulders and prayed for
her. The symptoms immediately vanished and subsequent tests found that
the abnormality had disappeared. This is not normal remission.
Remission does not mean that the symptoms immediately vanish.

9)Paul Wittney Trousdale:Massive GI Hemorrhage.

Trousdale
was a prominent civic leader and builder in California in the early
70s. On December 12, 1973 he was admitted to St. John's Hospital in
Sana Monica with massive hemorrhaging which required many
transfusions.His wife called Reverend John Hinkle to his bedside, they
prayed and he was instantly healed. All the medical values returned to
normal and he went on to live a normal and productive life, engaging in
athletics and sports. Subsequent examinations revealed no
abnormalities.

10) Delores Winder: Osteoporosis of the Complete Spine.

"Mrs.
Delores Winder presents us with an unusual case of severe, chronic,
disabling pain secondary to Osteoporosis, which her physicians tried to
relieve by five different spine operations. The patients symptoms had
begun early in 1957. By 1962 she had worn a full body cast or brace of
some sort...although at the time of her healing she was in a light
weight full body plastic shell. Although she did not believe in instant
miraculous healing she attend a lecture by Miss Kulhman in Dallas on
August 30. 1975.She was miraculously healed beginning with a sensation
of heat in both of her lower extremities.She has been resorted to full
health, wears no barce or support, takes no medication and has
completely normal sensations in the lower extremities. This is unusual
becasue the spinathalamic in the spinal cord had been interrupted on
both sides, and in such cases the resulting numbness is usually
permanent."

The real problems that I have with atheists
and they way they deal with prayer is they can't bring themselves to
modrate the criticism. It's either out and out mockery or they feel they
have to totally accept. They don't seem to regard keeping their mouths
shut until the evidence is really good as an option. They also make no
effort to understand the point of prayer. they can only deal with the
surface level. They can't make the effort to understand what prayer is
and thus undestand why the answers are not rationalizations, but they
only want to focus on one thing, the surface level, did you get what you
want? it never occurs to them that's not the point of prayer. I will
deal with these factors and more next time.

*one
study has been disproved. Wirth the study on invetro, Wirth himself has
been proved to be a fraud. That's where atheists argue guilt by
association. I've seen them try to invalidate the studies that Wirth
wasn't even connected with.

Monday, May 26, 2014

One of the game atheists play the most is accusing Christians of game playing. This is the ploy used on a Blog called Godless in Dixie, the article, "the Games Christians Play: Three Common Examples..." This article is making the rounds of message boards and blogs, being quoted quite a bit. Perfect example of how they brain wash. They give their guys this model to go by so whenever they see a Christian arguing this way, they know it's game playing thus they are brain washed with the inoculation not to pay attention to Christian arguments. It's another version of poisoning the well.

He (apparently just goes by sceen name "godless") begins by inoculating the atheist catechumens in avoiding Christian arguments by referencing "confirmation bias." Becuase there is a psychological tendency to conform our views all atemptes of the enemy to affirm their view are just this rationalization called "confirmation bias." Of course that's not true of atheist evidence, that's valid scinece.

Confirmation bias happens when we preselect for our attention only those
data which support the beliefs we had before we even began our quest to
find the truth. As long as we can find quick and easy ways to dismiss
and ignore all data which contradict our preconceived ideas, we will
find that the remaining “evidence” perfectly supports whatever we
thought from the very beginning.

sound advice. That's why he's going to give you three examples of Christian game playing. Hey that's not his confirmation bias. That's true scientific fact that Christians play games. Of cousre atheists don't play games they just expose Christian games. So the first example:

Claim 1: If you pray for X, it will happen.

Anyone who teaches you that, if you pray for X, X must happen, is an idiot. I find it hard to believe that anyone says that. I never heard anyone brash enough to make that actual claim. Even people I know who claim to have miracles coming out their ears, people who have miracles happen every day they get of bed in the morning don't say that. No one says "if you pay it must happen."

I was taught to inform the critics of my faith that you can’t view God
like he’s Santa Claus, beholden to each of us who asks for a pony, for a
raise, or for whatever our selfish little hearts desire. For shame! I
was taught to make people feel guilty for thinking they can ask God for
things. The only thing is: That’s exactly what the New Testament
tells us to do. Jesus instructed his followers to ask for things. He
didn’t guilt them for suggesting such; in fact, it was his idea. But Christians quickly forget that and rush to bury that fact under a plethora of qualifications and ad hoc provisions.

What he's saying is Christians soft peddle the hard core faith statements of the Bible so you wont be disappointed. Then that's a betrail of the Bible while the Bible is BS becuase it betrays reality becasue there are no answers to prayer. Of cousre that doesn't make the Chrsitians wise to soft peddle those statements it makes them game players. What's obviously happening is that he just can't understand balanced teaching. Most atheists are not subtle thinkers. He's not doing this to find truth, he doesn't give a rat's ass what the truth is. He's doing this to beat the enemy whom he hates. He doesn't care what they really mean by it. The point is balanced teaching is to be preferred and that's the only fair way to think about it. That's not game playing it's just trying to moderate with wisdom the understanding of texts form foreign time, culture, language.

I've seen miracles. I've had miracles, I wouldn't be a Christian today if it wasn't for a miracle based conversion experience. Yet I also know from experience that God will not answer all prayers all the time. In fact James tells us that. Of course "godless" does tell us all of this in a snide fashion like a good little hate monger. He claims that James and Jesus "unequivocally tell us that if we pray for the sick, they will be healed." What it says is:

James 5:14-15

New International Version (NIV)

14 Is anyone among you sick? Let them call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord.15 And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise them up. If they have sinned, they will be forgiven.

"They forgot to supply the requisite "fine print," is his own poster where they stuck on a bunch of clichés Chrsitians use to soften the blow of not getting prayers answered very often. Of cousre what's so dishoenst about this is James is also the one who tells us that our prayers aren't answered and why. In James Chapter 4:3 he says "When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures." So he's actually telling us the fine print but this guy is too much the propaganda merchant to admit that. Reflecting balanced teaching fairly would not get him a prize. It would not be effective propaganda. he summarizes the point:

Once you take into consideration this arrangement of excuses, you see that it is impossible to falsify the claim
that praying for X will make it happen. Over the centuries this claim
has come to be flanked by rationalizations which ensure that this
promise can never be proven false. Whenever what Jesus and James
promised fails to occur, you can simply fall back on one of the
following:

Your motives were imperfect.

It wasn’t God’s will.

His answer was “yes, but not yet.”

You didn’t believe hard enough.

There’s a life lesson you have to learn from this suffering.

Shame on you for expecting God to jump through your hoops and perform for you!

We don't have to falsify it. It's faith it's not science. We are not running an experiment to black mail God into doing our bidding. He's using the atheist fortress of facts mentality and their illusion of technique gambit to create the illusion that science explains away prayer. He's saying prayer stuff doesn't make good science. No it doesn't not if you seeks answers to prayer. You can be a scientist latter in other issues but if you are going to seek God's power in your life you can't constantly subject it to testing. That's double minded, it's not trust and it's doubt. He's trying to cast a negative poll over prayer because it's not scientific. There are scientifically based indications of healing. That is not the same thing as getting a prayer answered. You have to choose. You can choose again tomorrow. you can turn around and be scientific tomorrow. Now if you want answers to prayer put the science away for now and have faith. you are not trying to falsify prayer.

Claim 2: God will never forsake you.

Here is where he says one of the stupidest things I've ever heard anyone said:

Once you’ve established that even the worst imaginable injustice,
tragedy, or loss may be God’s will for your life, this promise that he
will never forsake you becomes utterly devoid of meaning or substance.
The ultimate emptiness of this promise never stops people from feeling
that it should somehow comfort them, but for the life of me I cannot see
why. No matter what awful thing you can think of, it can be argued
that this, too, is God’s will for you. So the claim is meaningless.

What did this really say? It actually says whatever doubt you find to not believe God is on your side that must be the case because you thought of it. At that rate no one would be a Christian more than one day. This is the most foolish lie of the pit since Papa Bush: "read my lips no new taxes." Why would it be the case that if you doubt God's good will for your life then the doubt must be true? The nature of doubt is to cross the mind at the most inopportune moment. All this means is that if you find an occasion to doubt God having the doubt proved God is not there. I guess the rationalization is "if God was really for you he would not let you have this doubt." That's of covered in what it means by "having faith." Trust God, that's Christian life 101. They are trying to poison the well and make it seem untenable by teaching you to fear any BS lie that crosses your mind about God's love and support.

Then he fleshes out his argument in a way that makes it seem a bit more substantial. What he's saying after shifting his argument is that whatever exampel of the worst injustice you come up with other Christians will say it's not true and God doesn't want that. No circumstances could ever be thought of under which God would really forsake you. Because other Christians might suggest that God has a reason to go through it justifies and dismisses the fact that God has abandoned you. This is really rich (meaning stupid) becuase all he's saying is people's encouragement can be taken as proof that God will really abandon.. He's mixing with the falsifiability thing. How can I really know that he wont when anything that happens will be rationalized as god's will for the good? So this unanswerable problem is opened to make you always doubt god. The answer is very simple. It's all based upon a bait and switch he substitutes his own version of God's promise for God's promise

We are not doing the falsification thing while we are doing spiritual warfare. The science thing can wait, if our relationship with God is on the line that's time for faith not for making useless scientific hypothesis tests that we dont' need to make. We do not need scientific proof if we have miracles and God's power in our lives. Make your choice which you want. You don't have to give up science, just don't make it a condition of faith. That is just causing you to sour the deal on faith in the name of science. Decide which matters more being scientifically correct of knowing God. That's one bait and switch, substituting scientific falsifiability for real faith. The he is also re-writing God's promises.

It is absolutely true that God will never forsake you. There is no promise that it wont appear that God has forsaken you.
Sorry to break it to you but there are times when it will appear so.
It's not a promise that it will always be sunny. You have to take the
long term view. God has not forsaken you, it just looks as though he has. In the long term God is there and you see he's there. He will be there when you need him even if you don't know it, but some day you will know he was there. He will get you though and you will be with him in eternity. I just happen know something about thinking God has abandoned you. I had damn good reason to think it: My parents died of heart attack and Alzheimer's, I lost my house. I lost my career and I couldn't make a living, the mentally ill brother that I cared for went more mental because of my parents deaths. I had a real reason to think God left me. I even went around saying God has cursed me. I began driving around looking for jobs finally stopped looking and began shouting "YOU ARE A LIAR!" Latter I realized god was there I was a foolish child I felt real embarrassed but I knew I was forgiven and saw the idiocy I sunck to. I undestand that I just gave in to doubt and fear. That's what this guy is urging you to do. Give in to doubt and fear and become cuncial.
read about my Second Testimony and see what happened.

The first "game" he points out:

Claim 3: The Holy Spirit can mold a person’s character and empower him to live a virtuous life.

Here he's going to turn sin nature against the believer and hook the unwary by their self knowledge that they can't make it in their own strength. In back of that is the implication that "You don't want to be one of those celibate tyes. come on you want to get liaid, you know you are going to do it anyway." He's planting seeds of ratioanlization. Talk about game playing!

As a Christian, I was taught that all virtue comes from God. I was
taught that people are naturally awful and despicable and that the only
thing that can enable them to be virtuous is the indwelling presence of
the Holy Spirit. Both of these ideas come from the Bible, not from some
later perversion of Christian tradition. But like the other two, this
claim becomes meaningless once you read the disclaimers in the fine
print. Besides the numerous promises that this inner presence will
produce a laundry list of virtues (love being chief among them), at one
point the Bible even goes on to say things like:

God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond
what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way
out so that you can endure it.

Watch how easily promises like this become meaningless: When a
Christian exemplifies virtuous behavior, they say it was because “Jesus
lives inside her.” But then whenever a Christian displays poor judgment
or moral turpitude, this cannot be a failure of God to deliver on his
promise.

What's illogical about that? It makes perfect sense that if God is real he wont be the cause of our down fall. We don't want to pridefully say "I did this myself becasue I'm so good." Of course he harps upon the self esteem issue: belief in sin is really saying you are no good. Since the studies prove that self esteem is a major factor in atheism he's triggering the self esteem issue. People with low self esteem cant' be honest about their own weakness without berating themselves. Could he really think it would make sense to really believe in God and say "that stupid old God I'm stronger than he is. He can't help me but I can be good in my own?" Does that really make sense? We also don't accept it as "I'm' not good, I'm a piece of shit and I can't do anything on my own." They are always opposed to balanced teaching.

James 1: NASB

12 Blessed is a man who perseveres under trial; for once he has [m]been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him.13 Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted [n]by God”; for God cannot be tempted [o]by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone.14 But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust.15 Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and when sin [p]is accomplished, it brings forth death.16 Do not be [q]deceived, my beloved brethren.17 Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or [r]shifting shadow.18 In the exercise of His will He brought us forth by the word of truth, so that we would be [s]a kind of first fruits [t]among His creatures

This whole article is an attempt to indoctrinate the atheist into doubting God and throwing away faith by giving into psychological traps of low self esteem. One knows at the outset that accuzations of game playing usually come from game playing. He is not seeking truth he's seeking to plant seeds of doubt that will produce rotten fruit and result in the root of bitterness of which Hebrews warns.

Hebrews 12: NIV

14Pursue peace with all men, and the sanctification without which no one will see the Lord. 15See
to it that no one comes short of the grace of God; that no root of
bitterness springing up causes trouble, and by it many be defiled;16that there be no immoral or godless person like Esau, who sold his own birthright for a single meal.…

Selling the birthrate is very appropriate. Esu was sensual and oriented toward the body and the sense and he felt at the moment. He was hungry, thirsty, worn out, and so he gave his birth rite for some beans. This guy would have you give up your place in the kingdom of God and be cast into eternal darkness[1] because at some moment you fear that God is not really on your side. So he wants those seeds to grow in you until they produce a root of bitterness that chokes out the good seed of the word.

Let us remember the advice of Barny Fife: Nip it in the bud. Don't allow seeds of atheist dout to destroy your relationship with God.

[1] I don't believe in hell as eternal conscoius torment. I use eternal darkness as a metaphor for cessation of existence. I also think that before we cease to exist we are judged and we understand why we are outside the kingdom (because we are at enmity with God). Please read my four page article on the subject (see the link above, or here: http://www.doxa.ws/Theology/hell.html

Friday, May 23, 2014

And to read it unaided, i.e. without somebody standing being you constantly interjecting "now, what this means is...". Just read the thing.

If Yahweh inspired a book that couldn't be read without Cliff Notes -
living or otherwise - to ensure the "correct" interpretation, that's his
own daft fault.

Meta:
right so you see it in the worst possible light. I would also urge
you not to seek answer because that is just an excuse to believe. don't
to reason or use your mind that's not free thinking. free thinking is
when you offer your mind as a slave to reductionist ideology.

recap

*read bible in worse possible light

*don't see answers or try to redeem the Bible.

*a surface level understanding is fine if it leads to hating religion

*avoid people who try to answer the issues because that's just an
excuse to seek truth.

*dont' think or use your mind, submit to leadership of group.

Then we have an exchange with Pixie.

Originally Posted by The Pixie View Post

No, you have missed the point.

If the Bible is nonsense (at least it part) it is not divinely inspired
If the Bible is not divinely inspired, Christianity is wrong

Either the content of the Bible has come from God or not. The Bible
contains such wisdom as beating your slave to death is okay if he takes
more than a few days to die. Such a sentiment cannot possibly originate
from a perfect good God, and a perfectly good God who was all powerful
would not allow such a sentiment in his book.

the original issue I was responding to was this:

Meta

In other words he's trying to doge the obvious. If fundie
inerrancy is the problem it's not necessary. then he say that's not
relevant. there are other alternatives, but not for skeptics. the form
of Christianity there can ever be is fundamentalism if your form of
Christianity doesn't' fit it doesn't matter because we insist that it
must be so anyway.

The reason it seems like all there is in the bible is because that's all
atheists want to focus upon. Of course they don't spend their time
looking at good stuff.

I also pointed out that they only read the bible selectiely. they only talk about passages that trouble us becuase all they care about is working up hatred toward the bible. the don't ever focus on the good stuff like love your neibhor becuase tehy don't want to us to see the good stuff in the Bible. I will link to posts I made just unloading a bunch of the positive verses. Love the enemy, love your neighbor, help people.

Originally Posted byrossum

The Bible contains both good and evil.

Good: "You shall not kill."

Evil: "You shall not allow a witch to live."

The first is good, the second is not. It has caused, and is causing, many deaths.

rossum

Meta:

I think the witch to live passage is really using the term for "poisoner."

Yes sure that's my point, there are passages that are hard to accept
becuase they are foreign to our time and culture. they have to be
understand in their context. Then to say "O that's a cout out just read
it if makes you feel bad then it's bad" is just a big rationalization
and it really just mean "O this foreign stuff makes me feel alienated."
That's just a shallow appraisal.

God’s Heart for the Poor
Deuteronomy 26:6-9

“But the Egyptians mistreated us and made us suffer, putting us to hard
labor. Then we cried out to the LORD, the God of our fathers, and the
LORD heard our voice and saw our misery, toil and oppression. So the
LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm,
with great terror and with miraculous signs and wonders. He brought us
to this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and
honey.”
Job 5:8-16

“But if it were I, I would appeal to God; I would lay my cause before
him. He performs wonders that cannot be fathomed, miracles that cannot
be counted. He bestows rain on the earth; he sends water upon the
countryside. The lowly he sets on high, and those who mourn are lifted
to safety. He thwarts the plans of the crafty, so that their hands
achieve no success. He catches the wise in their craftiness, and the
schemes of the wily are swept away. Darkness comes upon them in the
daytime; at noon they grope as in the night. He saves the needy from the
sword in their mouth; he saves them from the clutches of the powerful.
So the poor have hope, and injustice shuts its mouth.”
Job 34:17-19

“Can he who hates justice govern? Will you condemn the just and mighty
One? Is he not the One who says to kings, ‘You are worthless,’ and to
nobles, ‘You are wicked,’ who shows no partiality to princes and does
not favor the rich over the poor, for they are all the work of his
hands?”
Psalm 10:14

“But you, O God, do see trouble and grief; you consider it to take it in
hand. The victim commits himself to you; you are the helper of the
fatherless.”
Psalm 12:5

“‘Because of the oppression of the weak and the groaning of the needy, I
will now arise,’ says the LORD. I will protect them from those who
malign them.”
Psalm 140:12

“I know that the LORD secures justice for the poor and upholds the cause of the needy.”
Isaiah 25:4

“You have been a refuge for the poor, a refuge for the needy in his
distress, a shelter from the storm and a shade from the heat. For the
breath of the ruthless is like a storm driving against a wall.”
Isaiah 41:17

“The poor and needy search for water, but there is none; tongues are
parched with thirst. But I the LORD will answer them; I, the God of
Israel, will not forsake them.”
Jeremiah 9:23-24

“This is what the LORD says: ‘Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom
or the strong man boast of his strength or the rich man boast of his
riches, but let him who boasts boast about this: that he understands and
knows me, that I am the LORD, who exercises kindness, justice and
righteousness on earth, for in these I delight,’ declares the LORD.”
Amos 5:24

“But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream!”
Luke 1:52-53

“He has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the
humble. He has filled the hungry with good things but has sent the rich
away empty.”
Luke 4:16-21

“He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath
day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. And he stood up to
read. The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it,
he found the place where it is written: ‘The Spirit of the Lord is on
me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has
sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for
the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s
favor.’ Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and
sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him,
and he began by saying to them, ‘Today this scripture is fulfilled in
your hearing.’”
Luke 6:20-21

“Blessed are you who are poor, for yours in the kingdom of God. Blessed
are you who hunger now, for you shall be satisfied. Blessed are you who
weep now, for you shall laugh.”

Luke 7:22

“So he replied to the messengers, ‘Go back and report to John what you
have seen and heard: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who
have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good
news is preached to the poor.’”

James 2:5

“Listen, my dear brothers: Has not God chosen those who are poor in the
eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom he
promised those who love him?”

Wednesday, May 21, 2014

My brother and I once invented a pseudo science that we called "wackyoloyg." We had a serious theory about why people go in for things like Elvis has risen, or never died, Bigfoot, UFO's so on. Those all sound so tame now. This was late 70s early 80s. Those were some of the major wacky ideas floating around at the time. We concocted Wackyology to not only keep track of these cultural abrasions but to parody them and it became a comedy routine with us. Now I find is a corner of the atheist world that is wacky it makes wackyology look serious. We need a Wackyoloigcal analysis of the atheist world. I found an atheist site that desreves to mocked and I began following it.

The major argument on the page I found is far too idiotic to be taken seriously, thus need serious refutation. That is the Joseph Atwill thesis that the Roman emperors made up Jesus and Christianity in an attempt to pacify the Jews. Yes, that's what I said. Romans made up Jesus then persecuted their own peole for follwing him a couple of decades latter. They did to pacify the Jews? So they made up a guy who pissed of the Jews by not being enough of a Pharasey and who was so threning to the Sanhedrin that the had to be crucfied, who was cruvieid by the Romans (who made him up) to Pacify the Jews who they wouldn't hate the Raomans and give them trouble (they made up this popular hero and had him be supppossedly killed by them so the Jews would be pancified in their hatred of the Romans? were they retorted?).

Well stepping around that for the moment, the thesis is just like one brought out in the 90s by a guy named Pisso who said the very same kind of thing. It was a big deal for about a year then was never heard form again. If one wants or needs refutation of this insanity see: "No Jo Atwill Rome did not Invent Jesus." On a blog by a real historian, Thomas Vernna.

But let's excavate the site that pushes this tripe, just to see what we find. There's one called: "Bible Schoalr Claims Christianity Invented...as part of Roman psy ops campaign," (By Travis Gettys) One of the more interesting oddities of these guys, it never occurs to them that the term "psychological" didn't exist in Jesus say. He assumes they instigated psychological warfare by inventing Christianity. Most of the Roman efforts of psychological warfare (they didn't call it that) were about terrifying people, like crucifying thousands in front fo the city. They Romans were not big on subtlety.

Notice they have also taken to calling Joesph Atwill a "bible schoalr" like he really is an academic, he's a computer guy. He studied no theology. He doubted himself a Bible scholars becuase he supposedly figured out this secret code in Josephus. The big deep dark secret is that Josephus' record of the Roman military campaign in Palestine parallels the places of Jesus ministry.

The Dead Sea Scrolls, ancient Jewish
texts discovered in caves in Israel in 1947, give a different picture
than the idyllic first century Holy Land of the Gospels. From year one,
there were battles and confrontations between the Romans and the Jews,
the Scrolls note, and there was no turning of the other cheek by the
likes of rebel leader Judah of Galilee. And there was nary a mention in
the Scrolls of the peaceable prophet Jesus Christ.

“This is where I came into Christian
scholarship,” says Atwill, 63, an investor who lives by the proceeds of a
dot-com sell off in the 1990s. “There was supposedly this character,
Jesus, wandering around in Galilee. Nobody knew anything about him.
Galilee is only 30 miles long. Jesus and other historical figures of the
time would have known each other.”

Atwill, an admittedly bookish man, dived
in headfirst, digging out whatever historical records he could find,
studying the Scrolls, and reading Roman accounts, notably that of a
family member of the Flavian dynasty of Caesars named Josephus. He found
no historical Jesus in any of those writings. But there were some
uncanny connections between the story of Jesus as told in the Gospels
and the family of Roman emperors who took power after Nero was forced to
commit suicide following a coup d’état.

As Verna himself points out, this assumes the Dead Sea Scrolls were written in the first century. The were were spread out over several centuries. They didn't actually have much materiel form the first which was the end of their era.

Vernna:

Let’s start with the blurb itself. Just the little snippet above should put anyone off from even considering this hypothesis.

The Dead Sea Scrolls were not all written in the first century, but
spread out over many. There are more than 200 years of texts here, from
the terminus a quo of the earliest manuscript to the terminus ad quem of
the latest (3rd Century BCE – 1st Century CE). So no, Atwill, you’re
not going to find a match to the Gospels because these were written after
the Dead Sea Scrolls had been hidden away in the caves of Qumran. In
fact the site was probably destroyed by Romans during the First Jewish
War–prior to when it is generally believed Mark wrote the first Gospel around 70 CE.

The Gospels follow a pattern of what is called ‘Biblical Rewriting’
which was a common Jewish practice, just as ‘Homeric rewriting’ was
common with Greek and Roman writers. So actually the Gospels fit quite
well within the scribal framework of the Jewish community at the time.

Why would the Dead Sea Scrolls mention Jesus when the settlement
where these scrolls were probably written is over 130km (80 miles) away
from Galilee? That is the distance between New York City and
Philadelphia. Additionally, the sect at Qumran seems to have kept to
themselves, living strict pious lives of obedience to god and to their
laws. I do not believe them to have been Essenes–though probably quite
close to them.

Who else would have mentioned him? We have no contemporary
attestation to anything from the 30′s CE from Galilee beyond
archaeological finds (coins, epigraphical evidence, etc…). But that does
not mean to suggest none existed from the region. Between the Jewish
wars, the passing of time, we’re lucky we have anything from the region.
This is a weak argument from silence.

If you’re coming ‘into Christian scholarship’ from this position, you’re doing it wrong.

Your argument that “Nobody knew anything about him” is incredible
(Fixed!) since we have Gospels and epistles probably dating to the First
Century CE. These may not have been accounts of what Jesus said and
did, but they certainly demonstrate that a figure of Jesus was
well-known to at least some people in the First Century.

If you’re claiming to have ‘dived headfirst’ into the sources, does
that mean you have a grasp of Greek, Latin, Hebrew, Aramaic, Nabataean,
and Hebrew? What about just Greek–since you predominately use Josephus? I
suspect that, given your book only has something like 7 footnotes and
almost all of them are from Josephus, you haven’t quite managed to take
into account all the sources. (ibid).

If we look furhter down on the Gettys page we see him describe Atwill as "self professed American Bible scholar." What makes him a scholar? He says he is. The page is nothing but a sting of propagandist slogans and catch phrases about how Jesus was made up and religion is evil, all linked to more such pages. What site is it on? The bottom of the page shows a link, it's on "the Real History of Christianity: http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/esp_biblianazar.htm#inicio

The first there is the Atwill theory that Jesus was made up by the Romans. Further down the true birth of Jesus ("A true Account of Jesus' birth") is information that makes Jesus out be a real figure but places the son of Mary and Joseph as a guy who was taken to be Jesus but was not him. This true son of Mary was named Jeshewua.how do they know this? Their explanation of that is quite insane.

Energy
patterns of perception and understanding relating to qualities and
higher perception are being filtered off and diverted, bringing
about a programmed mind with fixed thinking and subject to thought
control. An objective mind without the subjective link being
recognized will simulate more a machine or robot.

A civilization
operating on objective understanding only, will consider itself
advanced, in particular, since nearly all its knowledge is at the
objectively-provable level and anything outside this spectrum is not
perceived and is considered nonexistent. Any knowledge outside this
establishment territory is ignored or ridiculed. The inner-workings
of life and true knowledge can be experiential with an
expanded and
balanced consciousness.

This dumbing down of qualitative perceptions, which are direct, and
involve resonance and expansion of consciousness, prevents us today
from detecting phenomena outside the objectively enforced band of
frequencies, and common knowledge (from periods of ancient history),
such as Earth portals, are not recognized today.

The Earth
apparently has countless such electromagnetic or etheric gateways
which lead to Inner Earth. This is not hollow Earth, but a
frequency
modulation zone between our Earth and its anti-universe pair,
referred to as parallel Earth or antiparticle Earth, forming a
separate ’Inner’ Earth.

What the hell are they talking about? Your guess is as good as mine. Now let's try to find the major site this is on. The link on the bottom of that page is about a guy Noel Huntly, I guess it's his page. He has such topics as:

Primarily a truth seeker, pushing out the frontiers of knowing has been
a lifelong passion of Dr. Huntley; even taking precedence over his
remarkable talents as a painter and musician. Amongst many areas of
extensive study, Noel Huntley has investigated UFO and
ET reports, channeling and spiritual phenomena. With a background in physics from
Leeds University and formerly employed at the Atomic Weapons Research
Establishment, Aldermaston, he later acquired further doctorates
externally in psychology and parapsychology and has developed the
foundations for a higher-dimensional physics that embraces life, mind,
the universe, and the spirit.

This, he considers, will reconcile physics and religion into a spiritual
science, in addition to aligning the viewpoints of the atheist and the
religionist. While a dedicated scientist, he dares to cross the line
between objective investigation and subjective investigation. His
contention being that scientific investigation must not be confined to
the material and that which is exterior to self.

He has written technical manuals and numerous books, articles and papers.
Studies also included many other subjects, attaining qualifications in
art, music, metaphysics and computers. In addition, research has been
conducted in the field of physical mobility, coordination and skills
with an evaluation of the true scientific principles involved.

Humanity’s extraterrestrial connections go back a long way. The book
covers the main ETs directly involved with Earth and the human
evolutionary purpose, including continued interferences from
unenlightened ETs. In the latter category there are aliens who have for
millions of years been

Remember a woman who argues for Jesus as fictional, a Jesus myther named Ashyra S? She also claimed that her mission was given her by aliens. A lot of atheists refused to believe that at one time. But she subsequently came out with a huge website that talks about it. Apparently this is all hooked together. the Jesus myther movement has connections, although I'm not saying all Jesus mythers, with, what shall we say? Let's say people whose grasp on reality is dubious.

I'm not saying that all Jesus myther types are talking to aliens. There does seem to be a growing faction that pretend that they are. I think it's appropriate that they choose as their focal point of exigence the most technologically scientific sort of image we have, the advanced scientific civilization form another star. They cast the whole soteriological drama in terms of a struggle between factions of advanced scientific types. They are just filtering their innate need for God and religious faith through their cultural construct of scientism and science worship.

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